Bay to Breakers devotees strike back

Another year, another fight over rules at the wondrously odd ING Bay to Breakers footrace.

Last year race organizers initially promised to crack down (ahem) on drunkenness and nudity. Eventually, a compromise was hatched that banned glass bottles and kegs. A few partiers were arrested last year; nudists, not so much.

Well, on Tuesday evening the group Citizens for the Preservation of Bay to Breakers released a statement calling for an uprising against the “continued attacks on the Bay to Breakers tradition.”

The new controversy? News that race owner AEG Worldwide would not allow floats to follow the runners who start near the Embarcadero. Instead, a race spokesman said floats would have to join the procession about halfway through, possibly near Divisadero. (By that point, most everyone is pretty well soused.)

The Citizens say they were never notified about the change and neither were local elected leaders or neighbors in the North of Panhandle area. Group leader Ed Sharpless said subsequent meetings with race organizers have been fruitless so far.

Race organizers couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The race, by the way, happens one way or another May 16. That’s 87 days and counting.